Music Class & Art Class

Last week Jayden started taking guitar lessons. He is beyond thrilled! I didn't get any pictures because he requested that I leave him alone. I didn't want him to be the only one with his mom popping in to take pictures. Imagine me saying "Hey, don't mind me. I just need some pictures for my blog, ok?"

I think Jayden would die of embarrassment.

One of the other moms told me that I can go around and peek through the window though. Maybe I can get pictures this week!

Anyway, we got there a couple of minutes early and caught the tail end of a music and movement class that his friends were in. He was super happy to see them there and was even happier when I told him they would be in the guitar class with him.

Once he went in, Caitlin and I headed to an adjoining room. She got to do a craft and play with her friends.

Afterward we rushed home for lunch and headed out to an art class. In my haste I forgot my camera, so all I got were crappy cell phone pictures.

Miss Shirley read the kids a story called Cezanne and the Apple Boy. The book was about a famous artist and his son. The story had several reproductions of Cezanne's paintings. It was an interesting story with great illustrations.

Miss Shirley discussed different types of painting styles, blending water colors, and various artists, including Picasso. Then they had to paint a self portrait to be placed on display in their art show this spring.

 They also had to paint at least one apple in their portrait.

Baking

Jayden has been working on different types of measurements in math. Of course I took this as an opportunity to have both him and Caitlin help me bake. Both kids have been wanting to learn how to cook. I'd like to get them to a point where they can read and follow a recipe from beginning to end on their own (with supervision of course!).

Loosely following this recipe, we made some pretty darn good cookies!

What better way is there to practice math? 

 This little one knows how to crack open an egg perfectly!

We made one batch with white chocolate chips and a second batch with milk chocolate chips.

 Both batches were delicious!

These cookies are so simple to make. This recipe is definitely a keeper! :)

Gymnastics & Baseball

Immediately following her first gymnastics class, Caitlin insisted on getting a proper gymnastics outfit. We bought the first one we found, which turned out to be slightly too small. That did not deter her from insisting it was fine, nor did it deter me from keeping it because I didn't have the time to trek back and exchange it.

 We threw some black leggings underneath and voila! You can't really see anything!

 She stretched, backflipped, and somersaulted her little butt off.

And finally, she earned her two stamps for the day, a signal that she did well, and that class was over.

Last weekend Jayden started a Baseball clinic. A baseball clinic is basically practicing the different parts of baseball sans teams. They go to different stations to discuss and practice hitting, fielding, pitching, mental approach, sportsmanship, base running, etc. 

We had a huge snowstorm and thought we weren't going to make it. Jayden was pretty disappointed at the thought of missing it so we went.

The kids started out with some drills, sprinting and doing some other stuff that I can't remember since I didn't take any pics of it. I did manage to get a bunch of pictures of him batting though!

 He hit 5 of the 7 balls pitched to him!

I really like that at each drilling station he received instruction and feedback. It wasn't like the team he played in where there didn't seem to be much instruction.

Here he is practicing with the tee. 

Wondering why there are chain links in all of my pictures of baseball? They had this gem waiting especially for me! So all of Jayden's baseball pictures will be from behind the gate. Boo. 

Except for this one because I quickly snapped a picture before returning to the other side. ;)

Knitting Class!

One of our local libraries is now offering a parent-child knitting class. Jayden has been begging me to teach him how to knit for a long time now. I rarely have time to knit these days, and my previous attempts at teaching people to knit have been unsuccessful, so I didn't think I could teach him.

When we arrived there were needles and yarn set up for the kids with the first row knit for them.There were also some finished pieces for the kids to look at.

The librarian hosting the event, along with the ladies helping her, are both homeschoolers!

The best part of it all is Jayden can actually now knit!!!! He's been practicing frequently since the class.

Little Miss played her DS for a while but ended up wanting to knit.

One of the helpers helped Caitlin finger knit a bracelet.

She was super happy!

After class was over we stopped to check out this display of Alice in Wonderland. Cait thought it was hilarious.

Science- Genes and Growth

In Science we worked on a genetics lab and a fingerprint lab. The kids learned that half of their genes come from dad and the other half are from mom. We talked about how unique everyone is, because apart from identical twins, there are no two people who look exactly alike.
The first lab had them looking at the differences and similarities between them (the kids) and us (Juan and I).


Then they had to count how many similarities they shared with each parent.

The features on Caitlin’s lab favored Juan, while the features on Jayden’s lab favored me.
The second lab that we worked on had to do with fingerprints. It was a disaster! The kids either didn't press their fingers in the spot fully or they did it sideways. Jayden was pissed that his fingers were dirty. Caitlin was marking fingerprints on the carpet. So at the end, when they were supposed to examine what kind of fingerprints they had, the prints looked like a smudged mess. But they had fun! :)